This Year's Tournament
Welcome to 2011 Click here for thoughts about this year's bracket Round 1, Monday * Match 1 (3/7 11:00) - The Foo Fighters beat Muse with 68% of the vote. Songs played are Everlong, Uprising, This is a Call, Starlight. * Match 2 (3/7 12:00) - AC/DC slaughters Def Leppard. No percentage given. Songs played: Back in Black, Pour Some Sugar on Me, Whole Lotta Roses, Give Me All of Your Loving. * Match 3 (3/7 1:00) - Pearl Jam blows out Live. No percentage given. The MMR staff isn't good at analyzing what is and isn't a blow-out all the time. (Jaxon later called a 53% win close.) However, if this was indeed a blow-out, it bodes well for Pearl Jam to have a chance in round 2 against Tool. Songs played: Even Flow, Selling the Drama, Glorified G, I Alone. * Match 4 (3/7 2:00) - The Rolling Stones, for the sixth year in a row, have lost in round 1. This time, they were beaten by ZZ Top by 16 votes. Pierre threw a mock temper tantrum at the results, and (unrelated) was called a douchebag by one caller. Not that you can really blame him...after all, we can forget about Jillian Michaels and the fat people -- the Stones are now officially the biggest losers! Songs played: Satisfaction, Sharp-Dressed Man, Shatter, Tush. * Match 5 (3/7 3:00) - Jaxon broke in before the last song to announce that the match between Breaking Benjamin and Cage the Elephant was close and that you should vote if you hadn't. The winner proved to be Cage the Elephant with 53.6% of the vote, which was "about 40-50 votes" of a lead. This means somewhere between 550 and 700 people voted on this match. Songs played: Diary of Jane, Ain't No Rest For the Wicked, Sooner or Later, Even on a Cloudy Day. * Match 6 (3/7 4:00) - Ozzy Osbourne absolutely obliterates U2, with about 67% of the ballot. Songs played: Sunday, Bloody Sunday; Crazy Train; Beautiful Day; Over the Mountain * Match 7 (3/7 5:00) - Tool, expectedly, takes down Dave Matthews Band with 62.4% of the vote: The Pot, Ants Marching, Sober, What Would You Say? * Match 8 (3/7 6:00) - Lynyrd Skynyrd surprises Jimi Hendrix with 55% of the vote. Songs played: Sweet Home Alabama, All Along the Watchtower, What's Your Name?, Voodoo Child * Match 9 (3/7 7:00) - Godsmack plasters 3 Doors Down against the wall. No percentage given. Songs played: Cry Like a Bitch, Kryptonite, Voodoo, Not My Time * Match 10 (3/7 8:00) - Bon Jovi defeats Genesis. Details unknown. * Match 11 (3/7 9:00) - The Offspring take a massive early lead against Soundgarden, and hold on with 56.4% of the text. Songs played: Self Esteem, Spoonman, Why Don't You Get a Job?, Outshined. Summary: Mostly expected results. The Rolling Stones lost. Again. I had errantly suggested that Live might have a chance against Pearl Jam, figuring people were sick of hearing them. Instead, Pearl Jam is preparing for a fight in round 2. Breaking Benjamin losing to Cage the Elephant was a minor surprise, but not completely unexpected. I felt that the top half of the 70's bracket was Hendrix's to lost, and, well, he lost. I guess that means...Queen is going to the great eight? However, if you want to ask the biggest surprise of the day, it's the match between Ozzy and U2. It isn't that Ozzy won. You can never be surprised when Ozzy wins or loses a match-up, and he has defeated U2 before. What's astonishing is the margin of victory. A 12 seed is not supposed to double up on a 5 seed. That's the kind of blow-outs Iron Maiden was registering last year. If Ozzy can stage another defeat like that against AC/DC, I'll be more impressed. Until then, it's a fluke from the Prince of Random. Tomorrow's predictions: The Who wins comfortably. Disturbed, no contest. Van Halen wins comfortably. Green Day wins comfortably. Queen wins easily. Papa Roach and Seether too close to call. Rush, no contest. Nirvana edges out Weezer. Led Zeppelin wins easily. Shinedown gets past Incubus. GNR edges out The Police because the match happens well after Pierre's shift. (Unless Matt decides to start yelling "flaming terd!") Round 1, Tuesday * Match 12 (3/8 11:00) - Despite an early lead by The Who, fans of The Boss push the match into a tie at the close of the fourth song, and the match goes into overtime. Overtime has a huge intermission as Pierre does the planner and then a commercial break passes, before the final two songs are played. Based on on-air commentary on how the tie is derived, I have a suspicion that the phone votes may not have been counted in this match, as the tie was determined exclusively based on the "even bars" on the screen tabulating the text vote. Considering the momentum at the end of regulation was clearly in favor of Bruce, it was reasonable to assume that this tide would continue into overtime. However, it would seem the Who fans were lulled into a false sense of security at halftime, and they came roaring back at the announcement of the tie, and won by a margin of 60 votes. Songs played: Who Are You?, Born to Run, Long Live Rock, Born in the U.S.A., (long pause), Pinball Wizard, Thunder Road * Match 13 (3/8 12:00) - Disturbed whoops Audioslave with 58% of the vote. Songs played: Down With the Sickness, Show Me How to Live, Another Way to Die, Doesn't Remind Me * Match 14 (3/8 1:00) - Van Halen beats Motley Crue. No percentage given, but pic indicates a decisive victory. Songs played: Eruption/You Really Got Me; Girls, Girls, Girls; Janie's Crying, Shout at the Devil * Match 15 (3/8 2:00) - Green Day destroys Smashing Pumpkins with 68.1%. Songs played: (unknown), Bullet on Butterfly Wings, American Idiot, Cherub Rock * Match 16 (3/8 3:00) - Despite a lot of the phone votes seeming to be for KISS, this match was a rout in the other direction, as Queen had over 80% (!) over the text vote. Songs played: Another One Bites the Dust, Rock and Roll All Nite, Fat-Bottomed Girls, Lick it Up * Match 17 (3/8 4:00) - Seether wins easily, taking 68% against Papa Roach. Songs played: Last Resort, Remedy, Kick in the Teeth, Fake It * Match 18 (3/8 5:00) - Rush easily takes down Beastie Boys with 61.1% of the vote. Songs played: Limelight, Don't Sleep Till Brooklyn, Freewill, Sabotage * Match 19 (3/8 6:00) - Weezer narrowly upsets Nirvana with 50.9% of the vote. Songs played: Smells Like Teen Spirit, Buddy Holly, Breed, Troublemaker * Match 20 (3/8 7:00) - The Doors fought as good as a band can do against Led Zeppelin, but ended up with just 41% of the vote. Songs played: unknown * Match 21 (3/8 8:00) - In a highly-contested match-up, Shinedown escapes Incubus by a margin of about 12 votes. Songs played: The Sound of Madness, Pardon Me, Save Me, Wish You Were Here * Match 22 (3/9 9:00) - G&R / Police Category:Current Events